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CANADIAN OPEN

September 7, 2006

Mark Calcavecchia

ANCASTER, ONTARIO

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Canadian Open defending champion Mark Calcavecchia. Thank you for joining us. Good start today for you, 66 in defense of your title. Maybe some opening comments on a pretty good day for you.

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: It was a good day. It hasn't been a very good year for me, so any signs of good are good for me.

I got off to a good start, birdieing 10 and 11 right out of the shoot. I was excited to play today. I actually played great in the Pro Am yesterday, shot 7 under in the Pro Am. And I haven't done any of that this year. Maybe I could be coming to life, here. Maybe I just needed to get to Canada to do it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Obviously a different golf course, but did you good some good vibes coming back to a tournament to defend?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Absolutely. I'm sort of territorial, I've played well in the same places a lot of times. I played well at Glen Abbey.

(Loss of audio feed.)

I hate to complain, but it should have been about four better.

It's the kind of year it's been. Basically what's happened is the first two rounds I made a lot of cuts, but I used up so much energy the first two rounds because I've been struggling and I haven't felt well physically. I get out there on Saturday, looking to shoot a good score, and I make a bogey or double, and it just hits the fan from there. I perfected the tie for 68th this year. And that's not good. We need to kind of get a little more enthusiastic I think that's what happened when I came up here. Like I say as being territorial. I was excited of being the champion of this tournament and show up here and put up a good defense. I came here ready to play, I think is what I'm trying to say.

Q. You got your old caddie on your bag again this week. How is that working out?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: He caddied for me off and on in the early '90s. He won the '95 Atlanta tournament together and then he did his deal. And he's just having a blast. I think this is our fifth tournament back, maybe sixth. Nothing great has happened yet, but he's enjoying himself and he's definitely positive out there. He's just having a great time being out here and hopefully I can get something going at the end of the year and give him some money in his pocket.

Q. Technology has changed a lot, what's his reaction?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I'm not such a problem because it's not like I all of a sudden hit it 200 yards further than I did 12 years ago. But he was fairly amazed at some of the places these younger kids hit the ball, like Camilo Villegas and Bubba Watson. He's seen some of these kids hit it, JB Holmes. He was watching him hit drivers at Firestone on the range, he was hitting line drives three quarters of the way up the fence, and I couldn't even reach the fence. He was like, this is ridiculous. So I told him he should be looking for a younger horse. He's fairly amazed at what's going on here with how good everybody is.

Q. Historically when you play well (inaudible.)

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: No, I can't, actually. I hit 20 balls before Wednesday because my shoulder hurt so bad. Matter of fact I had a little bit of medicine put in there to ease the pain. PGA and Firestone I was in a lot of pain. So I didn't have much expectations. And I came out here and I was just swinging really easy yesterday. And I was just trying not to hurt myself and hit it great. And my shoulder felt really pretty good. So all of a sudden I'm just in a tournament that I love, I've got a lot of pride to put up a good show and trying to prove last year wasn't a fluke, which I don't think I have to do that after 25 years out here. You know what I mean. I just wanted to get excited about coming here and playing well. However, I wasn't over prepared, let's put it that way. I didn't hit too many balls.

Q. Which shoulder?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: My left shoulder. It just started hurting at the PGA, something fierce. My arm came back good and the doctor says he thinks I've got a strained biceps tendon and maybe a strained pec. But it feels I didn't really think about it at all today. I didn't really yesterday and not much today. With a little medicine in there and a couple of Aleve and I'm ready to go.

Q. Seeing that you didn't play this course in 2003 (inaudible.)

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: When I first saw the course six weeks ago it was quite a bit different. The greens were faster and harder six weeks ago because it was dry and hot. I thought the course played tough when I first saw it six weeks ago. But I knew it was a good course for me because it sets up great for me off the tee. Nearly every hole is a fade hole. Which is completely opposite from a place like Medinah or that course in Charlotte that I can't handle, for Joey Sindelar plays pretty good every year, you have to hit a 30 yard hook off every tee Quail Hollow. I can't play that course or Medinah. But this one I can play. It's a fader's course, there's no doubt. And it just appeals to me. It's the kind of course I like. And today is the best scoring you're going to see all week. It's going the greens are already starting to dry up a little bit and they'll get a little bit faster and firmer, and if you get a little breeze blowing around, Sunday is supposed to be kind of cold, so that will be nice. It will toughen up.

End of FastScripts.

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